Exploração mineira, memória e resistência: As retóricas ecológicas populares no conflito entre pequenos proprietários rurais e indústria mineira no centro de Portugal

Abstract

A conflict between small rural landowners and a mining company during the 1970's in a Portuguese inland hamlet is to be analyzed. Local opposition to mining is to be comprehended in the scope of social memory building after the perception of landscape destruction in the past. Besides the political background of the 1970's, ecological elements are explored to understand resistant rhetoric and action. This paper results from an investigation that combines anthropological and historical theories, where the ethnographic approach embraces the documentary research in companies, state and local archives.